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Alabama's First Question 



From P. 0. Box No. 347 

Montgomery, Alabama 

1904 



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ALABAMA'S FIRST QUESTION: 

LOCAL SUPPORT S LOCAL SCHOOLS. 



T 



A PERSONAL LETTER. 

JHE following communication was addressed on Feb- 
ruary 15, 1904, to a number of the leading citi- 
zens of Alabama. The letter is self-explanatory. 



Montgomery, Alabama, Feb. 15, 1904. 

Hon. and Dear Sir: 

I send you herewith the printer's proofs of an article on 
the subject of local taxation for educational purposes. This 
statement has been written by Dr. J. H. Phillips, Superintend- 
ent of Schools for the City of Birmingham It is my pur- 
pose to reprint it for general distribution among the people 
of Alabama, and to accompany it — in its published form — by 
the printed comments of a number of the leading citizens of 
the State. The completed pamphlet will thus form a local 
symposium upon the subject with which it deals. 

A Collection of To this collection of brief opinions I 

Opinions. earnestly invite you to contribute, 

making such comment upon Dr. Phillips's argument as you 
may think best. Contributors are requested to confine their 
statements within the limit of from tw^o to six hundred 
words, in order that the whole pamphlet may not be ex- 
cessively large. 

In sending you this communication, and in taking the lib- 
erty of asking you to perform this public service, may I 
venture to lay before you some of the reasons why I regard 
this subject as of such immediate importance ? 

Alabama's Progress No citizen of our beloved State can 

Since i88o. record w^ithout pride the history of 

the development of Alabama during the past twenty years. 
Industrially and commercially these two decades have been 
years of conspicuous change, of change from small things to 
great things, and from anxiety to confidence. 



What We Spend fot Unless our educational progress is to 

lEducation. keep pace, however, with the ad- 

vancing business of the State, — who will hold the larger num- 
ber of the remunerative positions -which the movement of 
business is creating? Must these be given, in the future, to 
the trained men and women of other localities, while all too 
many of the sons and daughters of the State must be con- 
demned to the less advantageous employments ? Is there not 
danger that this will follow, unless we bring the training 
which Alabama is giving to her children a little nearer to 
the standard provided b^ other commonw^ealths ? Alabama 
expends, per pupil in average attendance, only $4.41 a year 
for public education. Mississippi spends $6.48 ; Texas spends 
$9.95; Louisiana spends $8.82; Virginia spends $8.91 ; Flor- 
ida spends $10.41; Oklahoma spends $13.44; Maryland 
spends $18.81; Kansas spends $17.59; Nebraska spends 
$23.08; Iowa spends $24.63. I do not mention the even 
greater expenditures of some of the other States of the North 
and West. No State, apparently, in our whole country 
spends as little as Alabama. (See the Report of the U. S. 
Commissioner of Education, 1902, Vol. I, p. Ixxxviii). 

A Question of Business Need I dwell upon the natural effect 
as well as_ a Question Qf gy^h figures in determining the 
of [Education. movement of desirable immigration? 

To the man who really cares about the future of his children 
— which State is likely to seem the more attractive — the one 
which offers to spend $4.50 a year upon the child, in the 
average ; or the State which offers to spend $20 ? 

The Interest of the But more important and more sacred 

Children. than any of the commercial or mate- 

rial advantages of a strong educational policy is the con- 
sideration of our children's welfare. It is not enough that 
our city children should be well provided for. Our larger 
cities and many of our larger towns have ample school ac- 
commodations. But these reach only a small fraction of the 
children of our State. Less than 7^2 per cent, of our people 
live in incorporated places of 8,000 population and over. 
Outside of cities and towns of that size there live more than 
92 per cent, of Alabama's entire population. Ours are an 
agricultural people. We must not, we cannot forget the 
country child. That in this age of exacting competitions the 



young life of our commonwealth may be fitted to hold its 
own, that every eager and awakening mind may be wisely 
trained for its share in the labor and service of the world, 
that every human creature may enter at least a little way 
into that happiness which comes from knowing how to live 
intelligently and fruitfully, that every child of this State of 
ours way have its chance, — this is a resolution which may 
well become one of the commanding interests of our religion 
and one of the cardinal tenets of our social and political 
progress. 

■r^.^ ^ . ./ -^.«. < « "But," exclaim those who know the 
What IS the Difficulty? .^ i . i . , 

sacnfaces which our people have 

made for their schools, * 'Alabama gives more than half of 
her general revenues for public education." It is true; and 
the fact presents a noble and inspiring record. Where, then, 
is the trouble ? If Alabama gives so large a share, a larger 
portion than that given by almost any other State from 
the general revenues, why is it that the actual amount of 
her expenditure is so small, and that the expenditure of other 
States is sometimes from two to seven times as large ? Is it 
because she is poor and other States are rich ? That is but 
a small part of the difficulty. Other States, too, are poor. 
It is because in Alabama the schools have practically no 
other revenues than those supplied by general state taxa- 
tion. The separate counties have not been allowed to sup- 
port their schools by a tax of their own — levied by their 
own people for the education of their own children. In 
other States this latter method, the method of local taxa- 
tion, is the chief support of public education. The vast 
expenditure for education in New England comes almost 
wholly from this source. In Massachusetts, for example, less 
than one dollar out of every hundred comes from the State 
government. More than ninety-seven dollars come directly 
from the people of the district or the locality affected. 

Nor is this exclusively a "Northern plan." The plan is 
working just as well in Mississippi, where there are more 
negroes, both actually and proportionately, than in Alabama. 
Almost half the public school funds of Mississippi come from 
local taxation. And Mississippi spends nearly half again as 
much for each child in average attendance as Alabama; and 
the illiteracy of the native white people of Mississippi is 8 
per the cent., while that of Alabama is nearly 15 per cent. 



The method of local taxation is also in effective use in 
the States of Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisi- 
ana. Just recently it has been introduced with great vigor 
in North Carolina also, and more than 185 school districts 
in that State have voluntarily voted an increased local tax 
for better schools. Their people may do this because it is 
permitted by the Constitution of the State. In Alabama our 
people have not done this, because their State Constitution 
has prohibited it. 

The Beginning of a In our new Constitution, however, 

Better Method. -j-jjig inhibition has been partially 

removed. The people of each county — provided the general 
tax limit has not been reached — may vote an additional tax 
of one mill (ten cents on each one hundred dollars worth of 
property) for public school purposes. This relief is wholly 
inadequate. No such drastic limitation has been found nec- 
essary in other Southern States. The people of Alabama have 
as much right to be free to educate their children as the 
people of South Carolina or Mississippi. And if a county in 
one section of the State is — for any reason — unvvrilling to vote 
a local tax, why should its unwillingness be placed as a 
barrier in the way of other counties, presenting different con- 
ditions and having a different disposition ? I would not 
advocate compulsion in such a matter. It is against com- 
pulsion that I write. Is it not obvious that our counties 
should be free to do as they like with their own ? To pro- 
hibit the people of a county from levying upon their ow^n 
property — if they choose to do so — for the education of their 
own children, seems to me both un-democratic and un-Amer- 
ican. 

Inadequate, how^ever, as is the relief 
sing a e ave. afforded by our present Constitution, 
our people may well be urged — vsrherever they may be dis- 
posed to do so — to accept it and to act under it. Something 
must be done. Educationally Alabama has made striking 
and gratifying progress. In the twenty years since 1880, 
she has reduced her negro illiteracy from 80.6 to 57.4 per 
cent., and her native white illiteracy from 25 per cent, to 
14.8 per cent. Yet, while this progress should be frequently 
called to mind, we should be guilty of a false kindliness and 
a mistaken pride if we failed to face the darker side of the 
picture. The true service of Alabama lies not in the con- 



stant flattery of our people, but in a sympathetic, yet fear- 
less revelation of the conditions which encompass them. 
The course of true affection and of a wise loyalty is the 
course which names the disease— not in order to point the 
finger of reproach — but in order to find and apply the rem- 
edy. If our State is burdened with a great mass of popular 
ignorance, the facts concern us, concern our welfare and our 
progress, more than they concern anybody else. 

Alabama has reduced her illiteracy, 
but in the scale of popular intelli- 
gence — as tested by the illiteracy of the native white popu- 
lation — our State stands 47th in the list! Only three other 
States stand lower in the scale. (See U. S. Census for 1900, 
Vol. 11. p., ciii; and Report of U. S. Commissioner of Educa- 
tion, 1902, Vol. II, p. 2338.) 

There are eight counties in Alabama in which 20 per 
cent, and over of the white men of voting age are illiterate. 
These counties are St. Clair, Winston, Franklin, Chilton, 
Covington, Cherokee, Cleburne, and Coffee. 

There are four counties in our State in which there are 
(in each) more than three thousand white people ten years 
of age and over who cannot read and write. These are 
Jefferson, Henry, Jackson and Marshall. There are twenty- 
two counties in which there are (in each) over tw^o thousand 
w^hite people, ten years of age and over, who cannot read and 
write. These are Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Chilton, Cle- 
burne, Coffee, Covington, Dale, Dekalb, Etowah, Franklin, 
Geneva, Henry, Jackson, Jefferson, Madison, Marshall, Ran- 
dolph, St. Clair, Talladega, Tuscaloosa, Walker. No negroes 
are included in these figures. Nor are any foreigners included. 
I have here had reference only to the native white popula- 
tion. The exact figures for each county may be found on p. 
470, table 84, of the second volume of the U. S. Census for 
1900. 

There was in the whole State of Alabama in 1900 a 
native white population, ten years of age and over, number- 
ing 700,823. Of this population 103,570— or nearly one- 
sixth of the whole — could not read and write. That is a large 
number of white people for Alabama. It is a number 
greater than the number of the total white population (for 
1900) of Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, Florence, Hunts- 
ville, Anniston,New Decatur, Opelika,Phoenix,Selma, Troy,Tal- 



ladega, Tuscaloosa, Gadsden, Bessemer, and Eufaula. In 
other words the number of the native white illiterates of the 
State exceeded at the time of the last national census, the 
number of the aggregate white population of our sixteen 
largest cities. It is true that but a small proportion of the 
population of Alabama is in our large cities. That fact 
should be borne steadily in mind. And yet, after every con- 
ceivable allowance has been made, the facts— facts laid bare 
to the world, not by this or that individual, but by the 
official public records of our government — are serious enough. 

Reproach Will I<ie, Not Let no one suppose that I have 

*" JU^*^^^''''' ^^* '^^ called attention to these things be- 
Indifference to It. t ^ j -j. i ^ ^ i 

cause 1 nnd it pleasant to do so, or 

in order to bring reproach upon our people. I do it in order 
to remove reproach ; I do it in order that by facing the facts 
just as they are, our people may, everywhere, be roused from 
indifference, and helped toward the finding and the applica- 
tion of a remedy. What shall the remedy be ? Relief must 
be found in better teachers, better school houses, better school 
supervision, better country roads, and in a closer adaptation 
of our public school instruction to the practical needs of our 
people. 

The Question of More But back of all these considerations 
Money. there lies the problem of resources. 

With an expenditure, per pupil in average attendance, of less 
than five cents a day for only about one hundred days in 
the year, how are these elements of progress to be secured ? 
Ho^w — therefore — may we solve the problem of resources ? 

There are but four possible directions in which we may 
look: 

(1) Larger State Appropriations. It is obvious, how- 
ever, that the Legislature can give, for the general school 
fund, little if any more than it gives to-day. With more 
than half of all the revenues going to public education, 
the State — as a State — has practically reached its limit. 

(2) Possible National Appropriations. I personally 
believe in the wisdom and the justice of such relief. But 
— even if it should be secured — such a provision probably 
could not be obtained in time to affect the life of any 
living child of school age. And when secured it should 
come in response to local taxation, and not as a substi- 
tute for it. 



(3) Private Philanthropy. Three great organizations 
— the Peabody Board, the Slater Board and the General 
Education Board — have represented the policy of private 
aid. The policy has been noble in its motive, wise in its 
methods, and helpful in its results. But it is wholly, 
conspicuously, permanently inadequate. The funds of 
these organizations are insufficient for any but excep- 
tional and occasional cases. There exist upon the files 
of one of these organizations alone, enough applications 
from the South — from institutions and localities worthy 
of every confidence — to absorb ^thin a single year the 
aggregate capital of all three of these Boards. Their 
work is indispensable. It must go on, and will go on. 
But it is inadequate and — in the very nature of the case 
— must always be so. 

(4) The Increasing Support of the Schools by Local 
Taxation. It is a method almost universally adopted 
throughout our country ; it represents the principle of 
self-help; it deepens interest and responsibility by more 
largely making the support of the schools a point of 
local pride ; and, inasmuch as the people always closely 
w^atch the use of money they themselves directly contrib- 
ute, it is a method of support which insures the largest 
measure of efficiency. 

There are many other considerations 

ppor uni y o e p. ^j^jch it would be well to urge, but 

the limitations of space forbid. Local taxation seems so 

seriously, so immediately important, because it is, apparently, 

our only "way out." 

I earnestly ask that you will kindly weigh the sugges- 
tions here made, together with the argument of Dr. Phillips, 
and I hope that you w^ill consent to send me a brief com- 
ment for publication. Deeply concerned as you are in refer- 
ence to the welfare of the masses of our people, I trust you 
will not misunderstand the spirit in w^hich I have written. 
My desire is not the ambition of the officious or the intru- 
sive. Believing that the subject should receive the serious 
consideration of our people, I have attempted so to present 
it — in conjunction with the views of a number of my fellow 
citizens — that it may most readily command the interest and 
approval of the State. Asking that you will kindly address 
me at P. 0. Box 347, Montgomery, Alabama, and earnestly 
thanking you for such co-operation as you may be able to 
accord us, I am. Very sincerely, 

EDGAR GARDNER MURPHY. 
Montgomery, Ala., February 15, 1904. 



LOCAL TAXATION FOR SCHOOLS, 

By Dr. J. H. Phillips, 

Superintendent of the Public Schools of the City of Birmingham, Alabama. 




JUBLIC school progress and development in Alabama 
must await the era of local initiative and commun- 
ity responsibility. Neither increased State appro- 
priations nor millions from the Federal treasury 
will serve as a substitute for a local school tax in 
awakening personal and community interest in the schools. 
To be economically used, school funds must be distributed 
in proportion to the conscious needs of the people, and those 
needs will be measured by the willingness of the people to 
help themselves by community effort. It is folly to waste 
school funds upon communities that do not want public 
schools, while others are sufiering. Yet this must be the 
case so long as the bulk of our school moneys is obtained 
from the State and distributed over its entire area upon the 
basis of population regardless of local needs and local interest. 

An Old Question Much Local taxation for school purposes 
Discussed. jg g^jj qI^ question in Alabama. It 

has been discussed for nearly twenty years. Resolutions in 
favor of the measure have been passed time and again, not 
only by the State Educational Association, but by many of 
our county institutes. Since 1885, a large number of local 
legislative acts were passed looking to the relief of various 
communities that wanted to tax themselves for the education 
of their children. The failure of these efforts induced the 
friends of education to abandon legislative subterfuges, and 
to try amendments to the constitution. Some of these were 
successfully submitted, and although no apparent opposition 
was encountered by them, they failed to receive the majority 
of the whole number of votes cast for the legislative ticket. 
Other expedients were tried from time to time, but all 
proved abortive, — all succumbed to the blighting power of a 
State constitution which inhibited educational progress and 



development by denying to the people of every community, 
in their organized capacity, the right — by their own taxes — 
to maintain a public school, the one essential of modern 
government, the one condition of enlightened citizenship. 

Local option — not as related to the liquor question, but 
as applied to the question of school support — is based upon 
two essential facts recognized as fundamental principles in a 
democratic government. 

The Importance of First — It springs from the right of 
I^ocal Self- Government, jo^al self-government, not merely in 
name, but in fact. That the people have an inherent right to 
govern themselves, is the fundamental assumption of our 
theory of government. This assumption involves the right 
of the majority to control in purely local affairs, directly, 
w^ithout the interposition of the representative system. 

Second — Local option involves the further principle that 
the diversity of conditions in the various localities of the 
State may render a restriction that is desirable in one com- 
munity, a positive injustice in another community, where 
the conditions are difierent. 

The application of local option to school maintenance 
requires the consideration of these two principles. Local 
self-government is admittedly a right, inhering in the people ; 
it is fundamental to our entire fabric of government, and 
antedates all constitutions. The recognized units of govern- 
ment are the State, the county and the district, or the city. 
The distribution of the functions of government should be 
such as to leave the smaller units un trammeled, except as to 
matters affecting the larger units. The theory that the State 
has a right to interfere in the local affairs of the county, the 
city and the district, because these minor divisions are the 
creatures of the State, is calculated to suppress spontaneous 
development, to check local initiative and to reduce all the 
communities of the State to one dead level of uniformity. 

The People's Right to It is natural that the people of Ala- 
Tax Themselves. bama should have a wholesome 
dread of taxation. We have here a practical illustration of the 
adage, "The burnt child always dreads the fire." In despotic 
governments, taxation has been used almost invariably as 
an instrument of oppression and injustice. Those who were 
taxed were not consulted as to the purpose or the amount 



of the taxes levied, and the revenues thus raised were to 
gratify the ambitions of the strong and to oppress and en- 
slave the weak. Under such conditions, taxation w^ill always 
be feared. However reasonable the purpose, and however 
small the amount, taxes levied by any but the people them- 
selves -will be regarded with suspicion. This malady which 
w^e may call " taxiphobia," is a survival of medieval despot- 
ism. For the last twenty-five years, our constitutional in- 
hibitions and legislative prerogatives in Alabama have kept 
the people in an acute stage of this disease. The representa- 
tive system has assumed despotic functions. The chief reason 
for these conditions, it is true, is found in the need of suf- 
frage reform. With this vital question settled, the next step 
should be the restoration of sovereignty to the people, in the 
right to levy their own school taxes, for their ow^n benefit 
and development. Thus only will the people of our State be 
relieved of this perpetual dread of taxation and distrust of 
their representatives. 

The Only Objection to The only objection that has ever been 
I/ocal Taxation. urged against the local taxation for 

schools is based upon the fear and distrust of the people. 
The masses of the people, it is said, are not only ignorant 
and unpatriotic, but are also non-taxpayers. They will 
prove too ready to vote an excessive rate of taxation, and 
thus jeopardize the rights of property by the heavy burdens 
imposed upon it. The objection is pessimistic in the extreme. 
It is founded upon a want of faith in the masses, and 
strikes at the very root of democracy. It is a remarkably 
strange dilemma we have in Alabama. The people are 
afraid of the taxing power, and the taxing power is afraid 
of the people. The most prosperous States are those that 
have no constitutional limit to their local school tax. Are 
the people of Alabama less intelligent, less patriotic, or less 
worthy of the exercise of this right than those of other 
States ? I believe the people of Alabama may be relied upon 
to discharge this trust wisely and patriotically. 

Method Successful in In Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana 
the Sotith. g^jj(j Georgia, whose peculiar problems 

are much like our own, there is a liberal limit to the local tax 
the people themselves msiy levy for schools. In some of our 
States it is practically the only unlimited tax. Yet there is no 



record of abuse of the privilege, either in these States or in the 
older States, where the people have enjoyed this right for many- 
years. I shall not discuss at length the question of tax limi- 
tation. The tendency to-day, in the majority of the States of 
the Union, is to limit the rate of school tax that may be levied 
by the legislative bodies of the several taxing units, but to 
provide for direct legislation by a vote of the people, where 
a rate beyond the prescribed maximum is desired. It is 
doubtless wise and necessary for the people, through the 
fundamental law of the State, to limit their representatives 
in the district, municipality, county or State, by prescribing 
both the minimum and maximum rates of school tax that 
may be levied by the legislative body of each unit, but it 
does not follow that the people, by the same instrument, 
should abrogate their sovereign right to reduce the tax be- 
low the minimum rate, or to increase it beyond the max- 
imum limit, prescribed by their servants. A democratic gov- 
ernment pursues a suicidal policy when it declares the 
people incompetent to decide for themselves what improve- 
ments they need in their local schools, and what sacrifices 
they are willing to make in order to secure those improve- 
ments. 

Very "Wide Difference in Another important argument for 
Conditions. local option in taxation for schools, 

is the diversity of conditions in different sections and com- 
munities of the State. One community receives from the 
State fund an amount amply sufficient to provide for such 
school facilities as it needs for six or eight months in the 
year. Another community, with radically different conditions, 
can scarcely maintain such a school as the people want for 
three months. The former community does not need local 
taxation, the latter does. An increase in the State appro- 
priation that would provide for the needs of the latter, would 
give the former a needless surplus. The Legislature is now 
doing all that it should in the line of direct appropriations. 
Any further increase in this appropriation at this time, with- 
out local taxation, w^ould, in my judgment, prove a serious 
blunder. It would involve a practical waste of a large por- 
tion of the State school fund, by placing it in communities 
that do not need it or will not properly use it. There are 
communities in Alabama that do not want public schools, 
and the State should never occupy the anomalous position 



of forcing a public school upon a community that does not 
want it, while it forbids another community to tax itself to 
supply its own educational needs. 

A Stimulus to l/ocal Another important consideration 

I*'ide. should be kept in mind. So long as 

the cities, towns and districts of the State must look to 
the Legislature for the support of their schools, there is lit- 
tle incentive to local effort. Do we encounter indifference to 
school matters at home? Do we complain of popular apa- 
thy with regard to school topics, and the want of educa- 
tional interest throughout the State? These conditions are 
not hard to explain. We may talk eloquently and convin- 
cingly upon school matters to our people, but there is noth- 
ing that they can do; they have no voice in the question of 
school maintenance. Apathy and indifference to school 
matters must continue so long as the State persists in try- 
ing to educate the children from the capitol, and in fighting 
illiteracy at long range, while the people must sit at home 
with shackled wills and fettered hands, powerless to help 
themselves. What we need is the incentive of self-help, the 
stimulus of local power. Education is a local problem, and 
that problem in Alabama will never be solved until the 
power is brought nearer to the problem. 

If the schools of Alabama are to be appreciably improved, 
it must be through the power of local initiative and the 
spur of local responsibility. 

The People Must be It is important that the Legislature 

Interested. gijall be interested, but it is far more 

important that the people shall be interested. It is im- 
portant that the Legislature shall be sympathetic and liberal, 
but it is far more important that we have sympathetic and 
liberal communities, with power to act up to their ideals of 
right, and to their conviction of their needs. 

Some one has said that a presidential election every four 
years is a liberal university to the people of this country. 
The discussion of platforms and measures affords a gen- 
erous education. Local campaigns in which school policies 
and measures are discussed, instead of mere personalities, 
will serve to broaden and educate the people. Let the ques- 
tion of a local school tax be submitted to the people; the 
result will be local agitation, free discussion, competition 
and progress. In many of the Southern States we find the 



school district rapidly developing as a unit of self-govern- 
ment. Mr. Bryce states that the country public school in 
the South is destined to accomplish for local self-govern- 
ment w^hat the meeting house did for New England. The 
school district must become the key to local self-government 
in the rural communities of Alabama. This is the real bat- 
tle ground of true democracy. 

Money is Not All That Many people imagine that an efficient 
is Needed. State school system is merely a ques- 

tion of money, no matter how the money is obtained. This 
is a grave mistake. Money is necessary, but it makes a great 
deal of difference in the interest and sympathy of the patrons 
of the schools, if they are individually responsible. In many 
communities of the State, the public schools are still referred 
to contemptuously as "free schools," and "charity schools," 
and "pauper schools." How can it be otherwise w^hen the 
State forces a public school of equal duration upon all com- 
munities alike, whether they want it or not ? How can it be 
otherwise when the people of the community contribute 
nothing directly to the maintenance of their school and con- 
sider their per capita school fund as a stipend graciously 
bestowed by a liberal Legislature? It is not money alone 
that our schools need, but with it they need local sympathy, 
local responsibility and local pride. The result of the present 
school fund in Alabama would be more than doubled, in my 
judgment, if at least one fourth of it were raised by local 
taxation, voted by the people themselves. School efficiency 
demands that maintenance and responsibility shall not be 
separated, but go hand in hand. 

Instead of depending absolutely upon the paternal inter- 
est of the State for increased appropriations and general 
taxes for the maintenance of our schools, let us strike our 
constitutional fetters from our limbs and, like freemen, exer- 
cise the rights of freemen, in removing the burdens of illiter- 
acy from our shoulders. This is the privilege of democracy, 
the duty of patriotism. 



13 



REPRESENTATIVE COMMENTS 



HE preceding articles were sent during February and 
March of 1904 to representative citizens of Ala- 
bama in every quarter of the State. Among the 
many interesting and forcible replies, the following 
have been selected for publication. Of the answers 
returned, six were non-committal and two were in the nega- 
tive. All the other replies were in the affirmative. These let- 
ters will prove a valuable contribution to the discussion of 
what is destined to become the most important public question 
in Alabama. The communications speak for themselves : 

From the Hon. I. W. I have read virith much interest your 
Hill, State Superin jitter of Feb. 15th, and, also, the 
of^AlXma. statement of Dr. J. H. PhilHps on the 

question of local taxation for school 
purposes. The statistics furnished in your letter prove con- 
clusively that something must be done in Alabama. You say 
truly, "Ours are an agricultural people." The boys and girls 
found among the 92 per cent, of the population found outside 
of cities containing 8,000 population, or more, have the same 
right to educational advantages that their cousins in the cities 
possess. The cities and larger towns manage by the exercise of 
their corporate rights to secure sufficient sums of money to 
maintain efficient school systems. The rural school depends 
entirely upon the per capita disbursement by the state and vol- 
untary contributions from its patrons. Dr. Phillips has grasped 
the situation in Alabama. Local taxation is the only solution 
of the problem. Alabama, as a State, is doing, at this time, all 
that she should be asked to do. Let the counties now come for- 
ward and help themselves. Let us then provide the way by 
which the districts may help themselves. Many of the districts 
which reserved the right of local taxation for school purposes 
under the new Constitution, have already voted the tax. I 
believe many others would do the same thing had they the 
constitutional right. 

Count me a "full scholar" on the right of local taxation 
for school purposes by both counties and districts. 

From John "W. Aber- I heartily endorse the article of Supt. 
crombie. President of philHps on "Local Taxation for 
h'at^^^''^''^^^^ Schools." His arguments are clear 

and, to my mind, unanswerable. 
Alabama is coming to realize more and more her educa- 
tional duty, and is making efforts to discharge that duty. 

14 



This is a matter of gratification to those who have labored 
so long and so assiduously to that end. And she is striving 
to do this duty without regard to race or color or previous 
condition. A sum amounting to over a million dollars, 
nearly fifty per cent, of the State's revenues, is expended 
annually for public education. From a State standpoint, 
considering population and wealth, no State is doing more. 
Indeed the State, in a State capacity, is doing approxi- 
mately all that could be expected. 

Yet, the revenues are altogether inadequate. The school 
houses, are, in many instances, but miserable makeshifts; the 
annual sessions are lamentably short, ranging from ninety- 
three days in the colored schools to one hundred and six in 
the white; the teachers, as a rule, are poorly prepared and 
more poorly paid, the majority being without special train- 
ing and holding low grade certificates, and the average of 
salaries ranging from twenty-three dollars per month in the 
colored to thirty-three dollars per month in the white schools. 
When compared with the necessities of the situation, it is 
clear that the funds are entirely inadequate. 

Then what shall we do? Shall we wait until Alabama 
increases in wealth ? If so, is she not likely to also increase 
in population? Shall we look to others for help, and while 
looking suffer our children to grow up in ignorance? No, in 
the absence of federal aid which now seems to be remote, 
there is but one hope for us, and that hope lies in giving, 
not only to counties, but also to townships, districts and 
municipalities the constitutional and statutory power of tax- 
ation for educational purposes. If the people of a commu- 
nity desire to levy a tax upon their property to build a school 
house, or to supplement the State fund, for the purpose of 
providing better education for their children, why should they 
not be permitted to do so? 

The right of local self-government is a principle for which 
the people of Alabama have always contended. Yet, in the 
matter of providing education for their children, it is a right 
which the fundamental law of the State denies to them. 
This constitutional inhibition is not in accord with the Dem- 
ocratic idea of free government, and is a standing barrier to 
complete and permanent educational development. 

Without the power of local taxation, no State has been 
able to establish and maintain an adequate public school 
system, and in the delegation of such power to the people 
lies the only means by which Alabama can meet her suprem- 
est obligation. There should be no Hmit, constitutional or 
statutory, general or local, to the power of people who own 
property to tax themselves for the purpose of fitting their 
children for intelligent and patriotic citizenship, and for suc- 
cess in the performance of life's everyday duties. 

Universal education of the right sort would be cheap at 
any cost. Without local taxation it is impossible in Alabama. 

15 



From C. C. Thach, Pres- I have read with the greatest inter- 
ident of the Alabama est the lucid articles of Mr. Edgar 
^^nrt^JSLT'^' Gardner Murphy and Dr. J. H. P^il- 

lips concerning the state of the Free 
Public Schools of Alabama. Their ringing, convincing words 
have my hearty concurrence, and I rejoice to see them w^aging 
a campaign, a crusade for the welfare of the rising genera- 
tion of the children of Alabama. 

To my mind, the most vital concern to the State of Ala- 
bama to-day is this same question of education, and the only 
" way out " of the wilderness we are in is, as stated, by " local 
taxation." 

The limited space necessarily assigned me forbids any 
formal discussion, but the sad situation itself as depicted is 
eloquent enough to stir the heart of any man who loves his 
State ; and how long, we ask, shall we suffer the melancholy 
condition to continue? Are we satisfied that Alabama shall 
remain practically the low^est State in all the Union in school 
expenditures, and practically the highest State in all the 
Union in illiteracy ? Is this not, indeed, a condition w^hich, 
however distasteful to record, should come home to the heart 
and bosom of every true citizen, and serve as a goad to sting 
him to action? 

(1) The State as a political organization needs a better 
Common School system. In any form of government the 
masses are the rulers, and water cannot rise above its level. 
To any community, be it country neighborhood, village, city, 
or county, a mass of inert brutish citizenship is absolutely 
fatal to all that makes for higher civilization, refinement, 
culture, and the peace and dignity of* life. 

(2) Our higher educational institutions, colleges and uni- 
versities, are in the greatest need of better common schools. 
The colleges take as grist what is turned over to them by 
the schools below^, and to-day every educator in the higher 
institutions of learning in Alabama is painfully aware of the 
most imperfect preparatory training of a large per cent, of 
the students who apply to enter college. 

(3) The commercial, industrial, if you please materialistic 
interests of Alabama need better schools throughout the 
length and breadth of the State. 

No community can afford to neglect the methods w^here- 
by w^ealth and prosperity have been produced by other com- 
munities. The highest daily wages are paid where the most 
is paid for education. Inventiveness, mental alertness, the 
spirit of progress, thrift, the capacity to do something, to 
build cozy homes, savings banks, — these are all direct products 
of good schools. 

The universal verdict in regard to the decline of England 
as an industrial country is that the fundamental defect lies 
in the lack of elementary popular education. On the other 
hand, the phenomenal industrial prosperity of America is 

i6 



regarded by innumerable committees of investigation from 
abroad as directly attributable to our superb American sys- 
tem of free common schools. 

And if common schools are indispensable for producing 
wealth in Iowa or Indiana, are they not equally indispensa- 
ble in Alabama ? There can be but one reply. 

Truly the children of a State are its best assets, and 
money converted into brain power is the wisest and most 
profitable investment possible for a community to make. Of 
what avail, pray, are the boasted splendid material endow- 
ments of Alabama in field, mine, and river, if we have not the 
brain power, the science and the skill to convert them from 
the crude conditions that prevailed under the reign of the 
Indian? Nor should we be content to import this brain 
power from other States. 

Now, there can be no successful system of schools for the 
people without money. The mill will not grind without 
water. And no State Treasury can possibly meet the demands 
of the situation. Alabama as a State has done all that she 
can and all that she sho;uld do for common schools. A grave 
defect of the new Constitution is its failure to grant a larger 
right of local taxation for schools. Without representation 
taxation is tyranny ; but a representative government that is 
parsimonious, is an ignorant, unprogressive government, des- 
tined to stagnation and rot. 

A propaganda of agitation should be conducted until 
this unwise prohibition is removed. Private ownership turns 
sand into gold, and local ownership in schools is indispensa- 
ble for keen personal interest in their welfare, and the great- 
est benefit to the community. 

I am confident that the people if properly approached can 
be brought to see the paramount importance of better com- 
mon schools; can be brought to see the pressing, insistent 
necessity of better common schools; better teachers, rather 
than many who seek the profession of teaching as a haven 
of refuge ; better school buildings, affording both better com- 
fort and health and a touch of inspiration to the stunted 
aesthetic nature of our children; better pay; better school 
furniture; longer terms. These are a few of the long cata- 
logue of our needs in education, unless we in Alabama are 
content to remain in the rear guard of education and progress. 

A tremendous evangelistic campaign for this religion of 
education should be waged in every hamlet in our State. 

From :Bx-Gov. W. C. I have carefully read your very able 

Al'abama''^"*'^^^^^'^' address upon the subject of "Local 

Support for Local Schools." Your 
presentation of the needs and suggestion of the ways and 
means to remedy the great evil of illiteracy is clear, cogent 
and convincing and meets my hearty approval. In Alabama 
the people have been led to believe that it is unnecessary for 

17 



the parent to do anything towards the education of his 
child — that the State will attend to that. Demagogic poli- 
ticians have largely contributed to this state of public opin- 
ion. It is paternalism gone to seed. The people should learn 
the philosophy of Franklin— " That God helps those who 
help themselves;" that the State will help those who help 
themselves. 

Local taxation is the only light I see at present for in- 
creased educational advantages. The first paragraph in the 
article by Dr. J. H. Phillips on "Local Taxation for Schools" 
so fully expresses my views that I adopt it entire without 
qualification. Go on with your good work, Mr. Murphy. 
Your learning and great ability could not be employed in 
jany other field to greater advantage to the public. 



From l^hottias_ G. Jones, I have carefully read Dr. Phillips's 
f^* ?ii "^^^^^^^^ Judge article on local taxation for educa- 
Middle Districts ^*of tional purposes. In the main, I heart- 
Alabama; l^x-Gover- ily concur in his views, and think the 
nor of Alabama. granting of such power is demanded 

by many cogent reasons. I shall, 
how^ever, mention only one consideration which, it seems to 
me, has not been given the prominence which it deserves, in 
w^eighing the advantages of local taxation. 

The real value of our institutions depends more upon the 
character of individual communities, than upon the aggregate 
worth of the people of the State as a whole. Under our system, 
each community in practice, whatever it may be in theory, is a 
sovereign for many purposes. If we could dismiss, as we can 
not, all thought of duty to the youth, the State, especially 
under present conditions, should confer such power on the 
plainest principles of political self-preservation. The value of 
Constitutional safeguards for the protection of life, liberty and 
property, and the pursuit of happiness, are worth in any com- 
munity, only the value which the inteUigence and civic virtues 
of the people place upon them. If the local constituency, which 
select the judges and juries, to whom these rights are com- 
mitted, is ignorant or corrupt, the prejudices, or selfishness, or 
ignorance of that community will set aside the law, or will 
enforce it only as an instrument of its own narrowness or pre- 
judice. The State, having left the law in their keeping, thus 
enthrones local tyranny; since it can not interfere, without 
peaceable or violent revolution, against its own law The 
cure for such evil in local government, presents a grave problem 
for statesmanship. Surely, its wisest solution lies in curing the 
evil where it starts, by improving and strengthening the local 
constituency, rather than by promoting centralization, and 
bringing force to bear from the outside. Men who do not stop 
to reflect, seldom realize how absolutely their most sacred 
rights of life, liberty and property are held at the mercy of the 



localities in which they reside, and that they will be measurably 
recognized and protected, or trampled dow^n, just in propor- 
tion as the majority in that community is intelligent and 
conscientious, or ignorant and low, in its standard of civic 
duty. 

The extent to which a majority may vote local taxation, 
should, of course, be carefully limited. One prime reason is, 
that without such limitations the people will not confer it, lest 
the evils it may entail, ^whether real or fancied, ^vill out-weigh 
the good which may be accomplished. To get the power at all, 
its advocates must make at least this much concession. For 
instance, the people of a city, town or community, who pay 
their share of taxation for general educational purposes, and 
in addition put extra taxation on themselves to educate the 
children within their borders, should not be compelled to sub- 
mit to extra local taxation to help outside schools in the 
county, because a majority in the county may be so minded. 



From the Hon. George I have read with much pleasure and 

C^t^tll''''' froS^^ the ^°^^ P^°^* ^^^ article by Dr. J. H. 
Fi?s?'^llabam? Dist^- PhiHips on " Local Taxation for 
rict. Schools." It is a budget of words 

fitly spoken, on the right subject, at 
the right time, and in the right place. Self-help for self- 
improvement of the people, by the people, is the subject; the 
all-important present, the only time which w^e can claim 
as our own, now, is the time ; and the place is Alabama — at 
hand. 

The suggestion, in its last analysis, is simply how to secure 
co-operation in each community in the great problem of the 
20th century, a higher education common to all the people. 
The two great needs for the result are mutual willingness and 
ability to help each other, supplemented and perhaps controlled 
by mutual sympathy in the end to be attained. 

"Man cannot live by bread alone," neither can the school; 
nor can education live and grow by money alone. 

The State has done all that it can do, possibly all that it 
ought to do. It divides its income into two parts and one is 
devoted to education. 

The people must do something for themselves, each com- 
munity must do something for itself, and each individual must 
do something for himself or herself— and then all must help 
each other. 

Education is backward in Alabama. No one who will in- 
form himself can deny it. But it is not the fault of the State, 
it is not the fault of Alabama. 

There is a need for more money. Alabama cannot provide 
it, she has done her part. Who is to furnish it, and how? 
Each community must take up the question and decide for it- 
self, and above all provide for itself. The first, last and only 

19 



answer is systematic contribution, and general co-operation, 
which means voluntary assessments by local taxation. 

The problem of education is a broad one, it is general, it is 
universal, but practically it must be worked out locally, it can 
only be worked out by each community, acting for itself and 
within itself. 

The State can furnish, does furnish, will furnish only a por- 
tion of the necessary money. It can do no more. Each com- 
munity must do the rest. Mutual contribution and co-opera- 
tion must begin at home. It is the common lot, a law of life 
and " God helps only those who help themselves." 

I heartily approve "local taxation for local schools." 

From the Hon. A. A. I am in receipt of your letter of re- 

^.^^I^^^^i^^'i^^TA cent date, asking me to send you a 
gress from the Second r • r . ° tt^ m -n- > 

Alabama District. ^rief comment upon Dr. Phillips's 

article, entitled "Local Taxation for 
Schools;" and in reply, I beg to say that I am an enthusi- 
astic advocate of the education of the boys and girls of 
Alabama, and, therefore favor any "ways and means" which 
will make the public school system more progressive and 
efficient. 

There is nothing which renders the body of so much 
esteem in the eye of the great Being who formed it, as the 
fact that there is included vsrithin it an immortal spirit, 
whose flames can never be quenched but by an Almighty 
act. The mind is God's master-piece — His crowning work. 
Mental improvement, therefore, stands in the front rank of 
every other interest. It is the philosopher's stone that con- 
verts the base metal into pure gold. The prejudices which 
debase, the superstitions which enslave, vanish before an ed- 
ucated mind. Knowledge, when disciplined and directed in 
patriotic channels, curbs the tyrant's power and stays the 
despot's arm. Nobility is nothing without it, while liberty 
finds her best bulwark in its protection. Education, then, 
being of the highest governmental necessity, I am impressed 
favorably with the plan suggested by Dr. Phillips as being 
the most efficacious method, not only to improve our public 
school system, but also to lift the load of ignorance from 
the shoulders of the State, and to remove the appalling cloud 
of illiteracy w^hich hangs over us. 

Carlyle somewhere has said: "Government is man's 
highest work well done." Property in Alabama has greatly 
increased in value within the past few years. Mines are be- 
ing opened and furnaces kindled everywhere. Our State is 
rapidly developing her many wonderful resources. This en- 
courages us to take no foreboding view of the future ; and 
so also it behooves us to bid God-speed to any movement 
looking to better educational facilities for the youthful gen- 
eration, in whose hands will be lodged the destiny, the weal 
or woe, of our glorious Commonwealth. 



By the Hon. Sydney J. I favor local taxation in addition to 

Bowie Metnber of Con- the State fund, for the benefit of our 

gress from the Fourth , ,. i. i r ^ £: ^ 

Alabama District. public schools, tor two reasons, first, 

in this way only can the proper local 
pride and interest, which is essential to the best results, be 
aroused, and secondly the State fund, which has reached its 
maximum, is notoriously inadequate. The right of a com- 
munity to tax itself for public purposes, it seems to me, is 
indisputable, and the denial of that right is contrary to the 
spirit and genius of our institutions. 

Thomas Jefferson, the founder of Democracy and in many 
particulars the greatest statesman this country ever produced, 
said: "Preach a crusade against ignorance! Establish and 
improve the law for educating the common people! Let our 
countrymen know that the people alone can protect us from 
the evils of misgovernment." And in discussing his famous bill 
for the education of the people of Virginia he said : 

" The expense of the elementary schools for every county is 
proposed to be levied on the wealth of the county and all the 
children, rich and poor, to be educated at these three years free. 

" The truth is, that the want of good education with us is 
not from our poverty but from the want of a system. More 
money is now paid for the education of a part (referring to 
their private school systems) than would be paid for the whole 
if systematically arranged. 

" What will be the retribution of the wealthy individual 
(for his support of general education) ? First, the peopling of 
his neighborhood with honest, useful, enlightened citizens, 
understanding their own rights and firm in their perpetuation. 
Second, when his own descendants become poor, which they 
generally do within three generations (no law of primogeniture 
now perpetuating wealth in the same families) their children 
will be educated by the then rich, and the little advance he now 
makes to po verty himself while rich, will be repaid by the then 
rich to his descendants when they become poor, and thus give 
them a chance to rise again. This is a solid consideration and 
should go home to the bosom of every parent. It will be seed 
sown in fertile ground. It is a provision for his family looking 
to distant times and far in duration beyond what he now has 
in hand for them." 

Mr. Jefferson was one of those statesmen ^vho saw far 
in advance of the people of his o-wn day. His plan involved 
first, primary schools in every neighborhood for every child 
free of all tuition for three years, not for three months each, 
but of nine months each; second, a high school in every 
county, and third, a university in each state, showing that 
while he believed in free primary education for everybody, he 
also believed that the opportunity for higher education for 
those who wanted it should be placed within their reach. 

The State of Alabama now contributes about one-half of 
jts total revenue to the public schools of our State. This is 



all the State can do at present and probably all it will ever 
be able to do, because the necessary expenses of the govern- 
ment are keeping pace with the revenues. What are the 
counties doing? Absolutely nothing. Not a county in 
Alabama pays a penny for this purpose. The towns are 
doing something, but fully ninety per cent, of our population 
is rural and town schools cannot reach them. We have 
therefore practically nine-tenths of our school children with- 
out a particle of help in the matter of education, except from 
the State treasury. 

Can we succeed in removing the blight of illiteracy from 
our children on that system? The best answer to that 
question is the extent of illiteracy itself among the white 
population in the State of Alabama, which is to-day practic- 
ally the same as it was fifty years ago. That the present sum 
raised for public school purposes is entirely inadequate is estab- 
lished by evidence without dispute. That it cannot be in- 
creased by State aid is equally true. 

Indeed the natural increase in our children of school age is 
greater than the increase in the school fund, to the extent that, 
whereas, the State raised a sum last year sufficient to allow 
$1.37 for every child of school age, the alarming fact is dis- 
closed this year that this small and inadequate amount was 
actually reduced to $1.31, so that we are really traveling 
backw^ards. What then are we to do ? Are we to sit idly by 
and see one-sixth of our white population uneducated and one- 
third more so imperfectly educated as to be of very slight bene- 
fit to them, or shall we face the issue like men and settle it ? 
It seems to me that the issue ought to be met and solved. We 
must do away with the idea that we are too poor to educate 
our own children. If there is anything that can be said on the 
subject it is to repeat the words of Dr. Curry, "Not too poor 
to educate them, but too poor not to educate them," 

I do not claim that the illiterate white man is any worse 
than the educated white man. I do not think it is a question 
of morals at all. However, generally speaking, being able to 
read, especially the word of God, would seem to conduce to 
better morals ; but the point does not lie there. The fact is, 
that an uneducated man, however honorable, however indus- 
trious, or patriotic, has the door of opportunity shut forever 
in his face. What public preferment can come to the man w^ho 
can neither read or write? What real opportunity can come 
to him in business ? Absolutely none. Of course, with great 
energy along with courage he may triumph in part over his 
condition and accumulate a small stock of this world's goods, 
but how small it must be in comparison with what he could 
accomplish with the same amount of energy and courage if he 
had an education. And just here is also the case of those who 
have but a smattering of education. .They are better off, of 
course, than those who have none at all, but how slight are 
their advantages! Is it true patriotism to leave them and 



their children in this practically hopeless condition ? Is it for 
the welfare of our State or is it for the welfare of even the pros- 
perous people in our State ? If we place it upon the lowest 
basis, the money side of it alone, is it not our duty and to our 
interest to provide adequate means for at least the primary 
education of all our people in the State ? The only way this 
has been or ever can be done is through local effort and the 
only way that local effort has ever been obtained is through 
local taxation. 

Alabama enjoys the distinction of being the only State in 
the Union which denies to the people the right, under their 
minor civil divisions, to tax themselves for the education of 
their own children. The rural population of the State of Iowa 
is nearly the same as the rural population of Alabama. In 
Iowa they have, and have had for many years, a splendid 
school system based upon local taxation. Alabama's expend- 
iture per pupil in average attendance is only $4.41 per year for 
education, while Iowa expends for the same purpose $24.63 
per pupil per year. Both States are principally farming States. 
The manufacturing industries are nearly the same in both 
states with the advantage slightly in favor of Iowa because of 
its larger cities. Now note the difference. While the number 
of people, chiefly farmers in both States is practically the same, 
the total value of farms in Alabama in 1900, as shown by the 
census, was $179,399,882, and in Iowa, $1,834,345,546, or 
more than one thousand per cent, of value in excess of Ala- 
bama. In net yield per farm per annum, Alabama is below 
every State in the Union except North Carolina, and enjoys the 
unenviable distinction of having a larger per centage of white 
illiteracy than any State in the Union with the exception of 
Louisiana and North Carolina. The native white illiteracy of 
Alabama is 14.8 per cent.; of Iowa is 1.2 per cent. 

I do not bring out these figures to reflect upon Ala- 
bama at all, because I am intensely loyal to the State. I 
believe it has the finest climate, the finest variety of soil 
and has as good citizenship as any in the Union, but I 
know of no way of reaching this question except by stating 
the facts about it. If self-praise is a weakness, self-decep- 
tion is a crime! 

Let us continue the comparison between Iowa and Ala- 
bama a little further. Alabama's large number of negroes 
may account for some of the difference, but by no means for 
all of it. The amount of wheat produced in Iowa per acre 
in 1902, as shown by official records, v\ras 12 7-10 iDUshels; 
in Alabama, 6 bushels. The amount of corn in Iowa per 
acre, 32 bushels; in Alabama, 8 4-10 bushels; the amount of 
oats per acre in Iowa, 30 7-10 bushels ; in Alabama, 10 9-10 
bushels. Alabama was the smallest State in the Union in 
1900 in the production of wheat and oats per acre, the 
forty-seventh in corn, and the lowest in the yield of cotton 
per acre except Oklahoma and Florida which are not prop- 
erly classed as cotton States at all. 

23 



Will our people submit to these conditions or will they 
take hold of it and conquer it ? We have the best variety of 
land, as splendid a citizenship, and as good a climate as 
there is in the world- Then where is the trouble? Between 
eighty and ninety per cent of our people live on the farms 
and they have no schools except such as are provided by the 
State. These schools are notoriously inadequate. What 
then is the remedy ? I know of but one answer which other 
States have made to this question, and that is, to let the people 
of each community settle the question of the education of their 
own people in their own way. If we may not guide our feet by 
the lamp of experience, by what light shall they be guided ? 

I do not think the present system of school maintenance 
in Alabama is logical or can ever be made effective. It takes 
no account of the difference of conditions in localities. 

For example, in the great County of Dallas there were only 
266 illiterate whites over ten years of age when the last census 
was taken, in Greene, only 123; in Lowndes, 209; in Mason 
160. In Montgomery, the Capital county of the State, only 
478; Sumter 172; Wilcox 307; Bullock 358. Now, contrast 
these figures with Blount 2,657; Calhoun 2,747; Cherokee 
2,499; Coffee, 2,982; Marshall 3,055; Henry 3,266; Jackson 
3,715; Jefferson 4,532. The difficulty of the situation is, we 
provide the same law, the same revenues and same conditions 
for the first eight counties that we do for the last eight. Is it 
reasonable? 

It seems to me it is just as unreasonable as the tyrant 
Procrustes, who demanded that all of the men in his army 
should be exactly six feet tall. When told that it would be im- 
possible to comply with his request and get any considerable 
number of men, he said " Not so, just lay the men dow^n upon 
a bed six feet in length, and those who are less than six feet 
tall can be stretched to the limit and those who are more than 
six feet can be cut off to that extent." In that way he secured 
the blessings of uniformity! 

I would not impose a local tax upon any community that 
did not want it or did not need it, but those that do want it 
and do need it should not be compelled to wait upon others 
who do not. I believe in a limit upon taxation, but I do think, 
considering the necessity and importance of education, without 
which, as Mr. Jefferson said, a republic cannot live, the people 
should have the right to tax themselves something ! I do not 
contend that it should be left to them to levy an unreasonable 
amount, but I do say that, under proper restrictions, they 
ought to have a right to levy some amount. Why not? It seems 
to me the denial of this right is a denial of the principle of home 
rule, upon which not democracy alone, but our very institu- 
tions depend. There may be some facts which we do not care 
to talk to the world about, but only the foolish ostrich hides 
its head in the sand. Is it the part of wisdom to shut our eyes 
to conditions staring us in the face? I do not believe the State 

24 



as such can, or ought to, do more than it has for our public 
schools, but when a community in our State having the will, 
and necessity, wants to relieve itself of the burden of illiteracy 
by placing a reasonable tax upon its own property, I think the 
denial of that privilege is a blow at self-government and an un- 
questionable injury to our people. 

From the late Hon. Replying to yours of the 15th inst., I 
Chas, W. Thompson, heartilv endorse the valuable sugges- 
S'lL^Vfr^^^ifa! tions made by Dr. J. H. PhiUjI-s on 
bama District. Local Taxation for Schools, which, 1 

believe, will do more to stimulate our 
people along educational lines than larger appropriations by 
the State. This question, however, should be left to each com- 
munity to determine for itself the amount of tax to be levied 
and the manner in which it shall be applied. The people in 
Alabama who need education most are those who, unfortu- 
nately, care the least for it. If a tax were levied upon them for 
the support and maintenance of our public schools, it would at 
once enlist their earnest consideration, and would soon have 
their cordial support and patronage. 

It would also guarantee better teachers, and a more effici- 
ent and thorough training of our children. 

From Mr. T, Q. Bush, I agree entirely with you and Prof. 
President of the Mo- phiHips as to the State of Alabama 
Raifrf adTomlan" contributing as much as possible from 
etc., Birmingham, Ala- its general fund to school purposes, 
bama. and that any further provision for 

this cause can only be made through 
local assessment, as authorized by the new constitution. I 
believe that this ought to be done where there is a demand 
for better school facilities, and I am quite sure that your letter 
will serve a good purpose to this end. I think it entirely 
proper that the attention of the people should be called, to 
this important subject. I wish you success in your efforts. 

From M. C.Wilson, Pres- The arguments set forth by Dr. Phil- 
ident of the State Nor- ijpg for local option applied to public 
Ill^aSi!^''^''''"''' education, are n^onclurve. Th{ sup- 

port of the public schools wholly by 
legislative appropriation is not only wasteful, uncertain, and 
inefficient, but it is even baneful, in that it helps to deprive 
the people of their liberties, by making them dependent upon 
the bounty of the State for the education which should be 
free as the air to all w^ho w^ant it. 

There is no corporation on the face of the earth that 
would expend a million of dollars a year in such an unbusi- 
ness-like way as that in which, every year, the State of Ala- 

25 



bama expends a million of dollars on education. Too often the 
people feel a deadly apathy toward the school deriving its 
support, its system, and its inspiration from Montgomery. 
The children do not attend, and are not made to attend this 
school regularly. Any teacher in a rural school can attest 
the fact that there is a great difference between the total 
enrollment and the average attendance in school. The annual 
report of the State Superintendent shows that a large per- 
centage of the children do not even enroll. Can any one 
doubt that this indifference to education would be dispelled if 
the citizens in each community paid the tax to support the 
public school ? Is it possible to doubt that public opinion 
would compel attendance at school if the community pro- 
vided for its support ? We may see in hundreds of communi- 
ties, the wasteful extravagance of paying a teacher to keep 
school with an average attendance of ten or twelve pupils in 
a district having a school population of fifty or sixty ! 

When the truth of a proposition has been demonstrated 
in forty different States in every section of the Union, and 
demonstrated continuously for fifty years in some of them, it 
is folly to say that this proposition would not prove true in 
Alabama. If local taxation for school purposes has proved 
the best possible means of promoting education in almost 
every State, then it must be the best possible means of build- 
ing up the public schools of Alabama. 

Real growth has never come, and can never come to 
individual, community, or state, by living under the patron- 
age of some stronger influence. If the youth is to make a 
strong, useful, independent citizen, he must be throven upon 
his own resources, and learn to think and act for himself. 
Failures and mistakes he probably will make, but these will 
only serve to strengthen his fibres for a firmer grip in future 
struggles. If a community is to learn to exercise its higher 
possible function, self-government, it must be permitted to 
act for itself in all matters that concern only itself. As long 
as our schools are completely tied to the State's apron- 
strings, they will remain weak and inefficient. 

In my judgment, almost as great benefits from the inaug- 
uration of a system of local taxation, would accrue to the 
parents, the mature citizens, as to the children. It would 
transform these citizens from apathetic, half-hearted, selfish 
beings into alert, enthusiastic, patriotic men and w^omen, 
who finding scope for the employment of their individual 
powers, would begin to work under the best possible con- 
ditions for growth. Not only would good schools, locally 
supported, train the children to become good citizens, but 
they would make better citizens of those who, beyond the 
school age, must make the exertion to support them. The 
present generation of taxpayers in blessing the coming gen- 
eration with good schools, would itself be blessed with a 
larger growth, a higher mind. 

26 



From C. W. Daugette, Please allow me to endorse fully the 
President of the State sentiments contained in your paper 
f^^^^iX^^^mt' ^°d in that of Dr. PhilKps, and to 

subscribe to the correctness oi the 
facts presented and the conclusions drawn. 

In a school, the most prominent factor around which all 
work centers, is the pupil. The other essential one is the 
teacher. There are minor ones which affect the school, to wit : 
the parent, the school-house and grounds, the pay of the 
teacher, and the community. 

If our schools are not what they should be we must look to 
these factors to find the trouble. 

What are the objections to be urged against the public 
schools of Alabama now? They are, 1. Too short terms; 
2. Inefficient teachers; 3. Lack of interest on the part of par- 
ents and communities. 

The terms are five months, when they should be nine. 
Why ? Nothing to pay teachers for a longer term. 

While the great progress in a professional way has been 
made by the teachers of Alabama in recent years, the propor- 
tion of those who have studied especially for their work, to 
those who have not done so, is still deplorably small, and as a 
rule the best men and women of our State, the best intellects, 
those who can become moving forces for good, do not enter 
the schools as teachers. Why do these two conditions exist ? 
Because the average salaries of teachers in Alabama is about 
$300 per year. Here is no inducement to people to enter the 
work of teaching, so if one does so, it is from philanthropic 
motives, or it is because he finds it more convenient than any- 
thing else, and as he does not expect to follow it permanently, 
he does not prepare for it. He feels that he cannot afford to 
spend money to prepare to do a work that will pay him only 
$300 per year. 

Considering lack of interest on the part of parents and 
communities, we find that not one man in a hundred has 
been in a school-house for any purpose since he himself was 
a school boy. The mothers are not so interested as should 
be expected. Those of the community who have no children 
to send to school are not even bound by that tie. 

While the percentage of illiteracy in the State is about 
forty, only about fifty per cent, of the school population are 
enrolled in the public schools, and a good proportion of them 
lose a considerable part of the five months' term, as is shown 
by the average attendance of only about thirty-three per 
cent. Why this lack of interest on the part of parents and 
communities in the public school, the most important activ- 
ity of the State ? 

Ah, here we find the answer, activity of the State and 
not of the community and of the individual. The whole 
thing is too remote. As long as the State is running it, it 
must be all right. If the State says five months is enough, 

27 



that must be enough, let the State attend to that! How 
can we change this? Make the people pay for what they 
get. "Yes," you say, ''but they pay it now." Indeed they 
do pay it now, but when one pays his taxes he loses sight 
of his money and leaves the entire management and dis- 
bursement of it with the State ; but if he is told to keep his 
school tax and use it himself for the best interest of his chil- 
dren and the community, his interest is secured and retained. 
If he pays for a teacher, he wants the best ; if he pays for 
the school, his children must attend. His attention is drawn 
to the school-house; if the house he lives in is a good one, 
he wants the school-house the same. If his interest is 
aroused this far, he will realize the advantages of a nine 
months' school over a five months' one, and insist on hav- 
ing it. 

If we can find one thing that will accomplish so much 
for our schools, that will serve to correct all the known 
weaknesses in the system, shall we not have it? Local tax- 
ation will give us longer terms, more efficient teachers, more 
interest on the part of parents and communities, better school- 
houses, better average attendance, and greater progress. 

I thank you for the great work you are doing for educa- 
tion in the South, especially in Alabama. 



Prom E. M. Shackelford, The article by Dr Phillips gives the 
President of the State gig^ of the subject of local taxation 
Normal College, Troy, 9 i, i j xi. r 

Alabama. ^°^ school purposes, and thereiore, 

needs but little supplementing. 
The principle of local self-government has been a cardinal 
doctrine of the Anglo-Saxon race since it inhabited the forests 
of Germany. In his article Dr. Phillips intimates why this 
principle, as far as it relates to the subject of taxation, was 
surrendered in the South, and argues ably for its restoration, 
now that the conditions which made' the surrender advisable 
have passed, probably never to return. It may be laid dow^n 
as an axiom of democratic government that higher units 
should never interfere with lower units except to promote 
their development. They should never interfere so as to hin- 
der their growth; and this is what the State does when it 
obstructs local taxation for school purposes. In asking for 
local taxation the people simply ask the right to do what 
they please with their own property. And who should object 
so long as they do not use it to harm others but to promote 
the welfare of all ? 

Dr. Phillips's expression, "local initiative and community 
responsibility," gives the key-note to the entire argument for 
local taxation. The further from home the less the personal 
interest felt. "What is everybody's business, is nobody's 
business," and this applies strictly to the management of 
school affairs. Local taxation gives personal interest. It is 

28 



a peculiarity of human nature that one values niost what 
costs him most. Evidently, then, we are not paying enough 
for our education. It is admitted that the State is doing all 
that could reasonably be expected of it, and that it should 
do all that it is doing. What, then, is left for us to do ? At 
present we must avail ourselves of the constitutional privi- 
lege of levying the one mill by counties and so agitate the 
right of local levies that the next Legislature will authorize 
a vote upon an amendment giving that power. 

Suppose our education does cost us a great deal. Would 
it not be better to spend more money that way and benefit 
all the people than to spend so much upon the punishment 
of the jfew, w^hom ignorance leads to the violation of la^w ? 
Of course, crime will be committed as long as sin remains in 
the human heart ; but history abundantly proves that edu- 
cation reduces crime to the minimum. 

Taxation does not frighten people when the power to 
make the levy is in their own hands, and they are nearly 
always willing to vote the levy w^hen convinced that the 
amount raised will be Avisely used. Let the people know 
that money spent in the education of their children is a 
profitable investment from a financial as w^ell as a moral 
point of view, that the productive power of the citizen is in 
proportion to the amount spent on his education, and they 
will make the outlay. I have great faith in the people of 
Alabama, and I believe that when they are brought face to 
face with these facts, they will cheerfully vote not only for 
the mill tax already authorized, but also for a constitutional 
amendment allowing a liberal local tax for school purposes. 
This latter power is all the more essential now that the 
State is to be redistricted with regard to centres of popula- 
tion and natural barriers. 



From Dr. A. P. Mon- Mr. Murphy's article upon the Public 
tagtie, President of Schools of Alabama, should receive 
^akeTAlabaml!' the attention and evoke the interest 

of every thinking citizen of our State. 
Amid agricultural development and the success that has 
attended the w^orking of coal and iron mines, there is a strong 
tendency to slight, if not to ignore, the education of the young. 
With the struggle to reach pecuniary independence, to make 
money, in short, there comes indifference to the mental and 
moral training of our children, unless the necessity of educa- 
tion as the force that must in all higher civilization direct and 
elevate material progress is kept constantly before the people. 
Your plan of local taxation is, in my judgment, the method 
which must work out this problem. Community interest and 
local pride — of the proper kind — will accomplish more than we 
could hope to gain from State aid, although I believe that this 
should be larger than the sums now given. 

29 



Before we can put into activity a general plan of local tax- 
ation, it might be well by private work and through commit- 
tees to obtain assistance from all who can spare something for 
education. 

Your efforts in behalf of the young of Alabama merit the 
gratitude of our entire people. 

From Major W. W. Every good citizen must feel an inter- 
Screws, i^ditor in Chief gg^ jn the increase of educational facil- 
goSlt^f AlailSf °*"- ities. In most of the cities and.towns 

of 2500 population and over m Ala- 
bama, provision is made for school terms lasting eight to ten 
months. In these places good, and, in most cases, comfortable, 
school-houses have been erected, which in themselves are equiva- 
lent to a measurable extension of school time, because of the 
better work that can be done by teacher and pupil. 

These conditions are due solely to the voluntary tax borne 
by the citizens, which amounts in most cases to more than the 
sum derived from the State. Our State Constitution, with well 
defined regulations and restrictions, permits local taxation for 
school purposes, and it is the only means of securing for the 
country districts the school advantages which large communi- 
ties tax themselves for. With a State tax limit of only 6 1-2 
mills, and very nearly half of that dedicated to school purposes, 
no more can be expected from that source for many years to 
come. Local taxation is feasible, and those most deeply inter- 
ested ought to take patriotic pride in voting for it. 

Dr. Phillips is to be greatly commended for his splendid 
article. It ought to be placed in the hands of all our people. 

From Br win Craighead, I have been absent from home and 
Editor of the Register, j^gt now got down to your letter 
Mobile, Alabama. ^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^ February 15th. 

Your brief and Mr. Phillips's argument offer convincing 
argument in favor of local taxation for support of public 
education. Owing to the general and constant criticism of 
legislatures because of the size of the sum of legislative 
appropriations, we can never expect the State, even when it 
has ample funds, to do its full duty in support of public 
education. The educational fund must be supplemented by 
local contributions in shape of local taxes assessed and paid 
exclusively for school purposes. 

It is my opinion that the people will be more ready to 
vote adequate sums for educational purposes when they are 
satisfied that the money is to be employed in a manner to 
produce the most extended and best results. Where a State 
is as poor as ours, and people as well, "fancy schooling" is an 
extravagance, and is provided at the expense of the thous- 
ands of children, who w^ould be considered lucky if they 
could get thorough training in the fundamentals, the three 

30 



R's, in fact. I would see to it first that every child had at 
least some months' instruction in reading, writing and arith- 
metic before I would spend a dollar of the people's money 
for instruction of children in history, geography, languages, 
drawing, music and calisthenics. It is possibly the State's 
duty to educate all its children even in the arts, but it is a 
duty that should be placed at one side until that other duty 
of teaching all its children to read and write is fulfilled. 
If all the State's appropriation were devoted to support of 
primary schools, the counties w^ould find some encourage- 
ment to tax themselves to provide higher forms of education ; 
and the educational system as a whole would be productive 
of better results than we now observe. 

From the Rev. Jolin A. Absence from the city prevented an 
^**^^'a?'?'' ^°^^^°^' earlier reply to your papers. 
ery, Ala ama. j^ gives me real pleasure to endorse 

in toto the position of Dr. Phillips. Local taxation should 
be agitated throughout our State till public sentiment in 
every community rises to the height of supporting a school 
nine months every year. The rural districts should be care- 
fully mapped out, consolidating the schools as far as possi- 
ble, with a view to building up strong centres at regular 
intervals. There could be no better way of conducting a 
campaign of education along these lines than to arrange a 
series of "educational pic-nics" in rural districts, at which 
your strongest speakers would discuss at length the whole 
question of schools. There must be local pride and respon- 
sibility or there can never be successful schools. Even if the 
State or national government should supply all the money 
needed, it could not really educate. Even if every boy and 
girl in the land could be found to submit to being taught, 
it would pauperize our people and produce a helpless gener- 
ation. Let the whole State be reached by intelligent agita- 
tion till it is as disgraceful to starve the minds of our child- 
ren as it now is to withhold food from their bodies. Make 
every community feel its own responsibility for the growing 
souls in its midst, and provide ample means for the educa- 
tion of all alike. Of the whole people, for the whole people, 
by the whole people, should be the school motto of every 
district. 

From J.D. Barron, Mont- I have read with no little interest 
gomery, Alabama. ^j^g arguments of Dr. Phillips in favor 

of local taxation for schools, and am 
free to say that in the main I agree with him. As you know, 
I am opposed to national aid for public schools in the South, 
but that is neither here nor there. The important point is, 
What can we now do to better the public schools of Alabama ? 
It was my fortune to obtain the little education I have 
in the country schools of the ante-bellum days, and I still re- 
tain a vivid recollection of the crowded, uncomfortable house, 

31 



the scarcity and inadequacy of books, and, in many cases, 
the incompetency of teachers, as well as the crudeness and 
inefficiency of the methods used. I am thankful that my 
children and grandchildren are spared some of my own edu- 
cational experiences. 

It should be plain to all that our State is not financially 
able to do all that is needed, nor can we rely on voluntary 
contributions. It is evident that more money is required, 
and I believe that the people should have the right to tax 
themselves. In the rural sections of the State, especially, bet- 
ter houses are needed, longer terms are demanded, and in 
some cases better salaries for teachers should be provided. 
If the State cannot supply these real needs then give the 
people the right to levy a tax on themselves to supply the 
deficiency. There should doubtless be some limitation, but 
the Constitution of Alabama now fixes that, and within that 
limit the people of any county should be given the right to 
tax themselves for the education of their children. I believe 
they would vote for such tax and would never regret it. 

From Dr. B. J. Baldwin. Your circular letter on local support 

orSaS?*a?U>t' MZ't* {'°';1°^?' schools-accompamed by a 
gomery, Alabama. letter from Prof. J. H. Phillips, of 

Birmingham, Alabama — has just been 
received. I heartily endorse what you have written on the 
subject. 

The urgent necessity for a large increase in the public 
school fund of Alabama can not be denied. We are lament- 
ably behind the times ! It is not to be expected that the 
State of Alabama will increase the appropriation for school 
purposes, as the present expenditures for public education are 
about one-half of the State's total income. 

How, then, are we to bring our State to compare even 
moderately with our neighbors ? Evidently, relief can be had 
only through local taxation. We must permit communities 
to levy such special taxes for public schools as they deem nec- 
essary. I can not conceive of a reasonable objection to the 
plan of allowing the people to determine upon what they 
need and what they want. The frantic nightmare of some 
politicians over the spectre of reckless and extravagant tax- 
ation on the part of communities, given the power to tax 
themselves — is absurd. 

I am most sincerely and anxiously in favor of amending 
that part of our State Constitution which forbids the voters 
of any township, city or county to levy a special school tax 
— above the totally inadequate ten cents on each one hundred 
dollars. 

The housing of our rural public schools is a disgrace to 
the State, and special taxation is sorely needed — not only for 
the purpose of increasing the number and elevating the stand- 
ard of these schools — but of erecting and equipping decent 
school-houses. 

32 



T'rom John H. Disque, Your esteemed letter dated March 14, 
Judge of the City Court 1904, requesting an expression of ap- 
01 Gadsdeu, Alabama. 1.1 -• ri ij_ 

« vr ixo c , ^ u proval on the question of local taxa- 

tion for educational purposes is received. My labors on the 
bench are so exacting that I find but little time in which to pre- 
pare such a paper as the importance of the subject demands and 
therefore will have to deny myself this great privilege. I am 
heartily and unequivocally in favor of local taxation because I 
believe it will bring the people in closer touch with the schools 
and excite greater interest in their management and success, 
Avhich unfortunately is lacking at this time. Since I have been 
Chairman of the Board of Education of this City it has been my 
constant aim and purpose to have the people of this City tax 
themselves to maintain our system of education, and after 
years of agitation, last year, by an almost unanimous vote, our 
City voted to levy a tax of 1-4 of one per cent for the mainten- 
ance and support of the public schools for the City. What has 
been accomplished here can be accomplished elsewhere. What 
we need more than anything else is intelligent agitation, for I 
am of the opinion that when this matter is intelligently placed 
before the people there will be no trouble to get the people to 
rally to the support of education. 

Permit me, my dear Mr. Murphy, although a stranger to 
you, to express my appreciation of the interest you are taking 
in this noble w^ork which means so much in the moral, material 
and intellectual growth of our citizenship. 

I write this letter for fear that my silence might be attrib- 
uted to indifference. 



From G. W. Brock, ^sq. The admirable paper of Dr. Phillips so 
Opelika, Alabama. thoroughly comprehends the subject 

of Local Taxation, and his arguments 
are so convincing, that it seems unnecessary to add anything 
to what he has said. I think, however, that the first need of 
our rural population, at present, is an educational awakening, 
a proper appreciation of the school facilities already at hand, 
a stronger and more persistent determination to educate, a 
fuller realization of the curse of illiteracy, and a genuine discon- 
tent w^ith present conditions. 

Many parents are not properly using, for the education of 
their children, the means already furnished by the State ; for it 
is a lamentable fact that thousands of children in Alabama at- 
tend school only a month or two in each year while there is, 
within their reach, a fairly good school of several months' du- 
ration. 

It is true that the most rapid way of creating a permanent 
interest in public education is to induce every citizen to contrib- 
ute of his means for the establishment of a school in his com- 
munity. That peculiar quality of human nature — that element 
of selfishness — that desire to get the most for what he gives, is 

33 



thus appealed to, and the interest of the whole community is 
focused into a common center; and that which sprang only 
from a motive of personal interest will grow and develop 
into the broadest spirit of patriotism. 

I believe that such would be the effect of local taxation, 
without which, in my judgment, many years will pass before 
an adequate public school system will be maintained in 
Alabama. 

Now, there are two main causes for opposition to local 
taxation which must be overcome, one is the "taxiphobia" 
so well discussed by Dr. Phillips— a kind of involuntary shud- 
dering at the thought of increased taxation — such an aversion 
to the whole subject, that many persons oppose taxation for 
school purposes without investigating the benefits to be de- 
rived from it. The second cause is a constant dread and a 
combatting of every movement that might be construed as a 
benefit to the negro— a kind of fear that the property of white 
people will be taxed to advance negro education. From the 
very nature of the case, this result is avoided by local taxation: 
for the community wherein such taxation is undesirable, need 
not institute it ; but, on account of a needless fear, other com- 
munities, desiring local taxation, should not be deprived of its 
benefits. 



From the Hon. E. P. I have just read with interest the 
SabaSa ^^^P^^*"®' remarks of Dr. Phillips on the sub- 
ject of " Local Taxation for Schools." 
The Doctor presents his subject in a concise and clear manner, 
and clearly shows the fallacy of depending exclusively on 
State taxation for maintenance of public schools. So vividly 
does the Doctor present this phase of his subject that the 
suggestion of the reservation-fed Indians presents itself to me 
as I think of the community that depends whollj^ upon State 
taxation for public schools, I think the true difficulty is loca- 
ted under the heads, "A stimulus to local pride," "The 
people must be interested," and, "Money is not all that is 
needed." A united interest must be had before local taxa- 
tion can be thought of as a practical plan. Why does not 
this united interest exist ? In my judgment, one class of our 
people, referred to by the Doctor under the head of "Money 
is not all that is needed," have for generations felt a con- 
tempt for public schools, and that it was degrading to any 
child to attend one. This has been the dominant or ruling 
class, who have shaped the policy of the State in all public 
affairs ; while another class of our people have been at all 
times indifferent to education in any form, whether obtained 
from public or private schools. 

The governing classes have been opposed to taxation for 
public schools as a useless tax, the poorer classes, and the 
Dnes most needing education, have been indifferent to educa- 

34 



tion as a useless thing. Between the two, we have what 
may be fairly termed a united opposition to public schools, 
instead of a united effort in favor of them. 

While it is a fact that the people guard jealously the 
right of taxation, yet I think this is a minor matter in com- 
parison to the difficulties above mentioned. 

Northern capitalists who have largely invested in lands 
of this, Washington County, say to us, "Your tax is nothing 
in this State," showing that the people who pay the greater 
portion of the taxes are not burdened and do not complain 
at the rate. 



From Chas. A. Olivet, The State, seeing that she could not 

County Superintendent j-each the needs of the schools by 

of Education, Winston ox j. • x- j j • x- x 

County. State appropriation and do justice to 

her taxpayers, made a constitutional 
provision, or limitation, with the county as a unit for taxa- 
tion, which comes nearer reaching each school, than the State 
could, but it carries with it the same objections — it will give 
the large schools more than they really need and not be suffi- 
cient for the weak ones. 

Another important objection to this one-mill-tax is, it, in 
the majority of cases, will be too small to help much. We 
think the people will have interest enough in their own pocket- 
books to know when to stop taxing themselves. Thus there 
should not be such a fine limitation, if any at all. 



From the Hon. Wm, H. I have your favor requesting my 

Samford, Troy, Ala- views on a question that has long 

^^^' been considered by thinking men in 

this State and elsewhere, as being of the greatest importance 

to our civilization. 

I consider the education of the "masses" of prime im- 
portance to any State believing in freedom and having a 
republican form of government. And w^here the government 
is of the people its greatness, its power and its glory depends 
on the education of its citizenship. Accomplish this and all 
things else come w^ith little effort. 

The government that is benefited most by education is 
the government closest to the citizen. Therefore, the first to 
be benefited hj an intelligent citizen is the district or county 
in which he lives; then the State and then the nation. As 
each receives a benefit it would seem the part of wisdom for 
each to contribute to a system that would give an oppor- 
tunity to every boy and girl in the State to receive an edu- 
cation sufficient to fit him or her for the duties of citizenship. 

It is well enough for the State government to appro- 
priate money for the maintenance of the public school system, 
and I see no good reason why the Federal government should 

35 



not be called on to assist in this great work, but in order 
to get the best results the people in whose midst these schools 
are established must become interested in them or the whole 
scheme will fail. They and their children are the ones who 
are receiving the direct benefit, and they should be called on 
to do their part in the work. 

This can hardly be done by voluntary subscription, because 
in that event a few men in each community will refuse to go 
into the undertaking, and if they should agree, on account of 
the exemption laws, it would only be a moral obligation, the 
burden of which would fall on two or three men in the commu- 
nity. Therefore it would seem that local taxation for school 
purposes is the only hope for substantial results. 

There is another idea here that ought not to be lost sight 
of. Our people ought to be impressed with the desire to do for 
themselves and not to rely too much on the aid of the govern- 
ment or the gifts of philanthropists. We all realize that our 
people have passed through an era of poverty and depression, 
and during that time they were excusable in a measure, for 
relying on the State to establish schools and to educate their 
children. But that time is passed and there are indeed very 
few counties in this State where the small additional tax of one 
mill could not be levied and collected without the least bit of 
oppression, and in my opinion it should be done. 

The amount of illiteracy in Alabama, as shown by the 
census report, is alarming. And whatever may be said in 
extenuation of the conditions heretofore existing, there is no 
excuse for a continuation of these conditions. We have a State 
rich in material resources; our people are as capable and as 
industrious as those of any other section, and there is no 
reason why every community in Alabama should not provide 
itself with a school sufficient to give to every boy and girl the 
opportunity to get a common-school education. The State is 
doing its part, the philanthropist is doing his part, and it 
becomes the duty of the citizen to do his part in the advance- 
ment of the race. 

I trust, sir, you will continue in your effort to build up the 
educational interests in our beloved State. 

FromR. :^. Pettus.Pres- I have been actively engaged for the 
ident of the Clminber p^gt ten years in the industrial and 
villerASblmk. educational development of our 

State, and as my Avork along various 
lines has brought me in contact with all classes of people, of 
every degree of v^orth and refinement, to the destitute and 
most ignorant in the mills and mountain districts, I have 
come to the conclusion that the foundation of all true progress 
is based upon the intellectual development of the people. Dr. 
Dabney, a few days ago, in a public address, most aptly em- 
phasized this fact when he said, "Everything in the South 
waits on the education of the people. The natural resources 

36 



of the Southern States are great and varied; capital in 
abundance is ready for investment; only men are wanted 
who can plan, organize and direct." 

Prom the Hon. i^arle The most vital question before the 

Pettus, Athens. Ala- people of Alabama to-day is that of 

°^^^' education. It is more important 

than other issues because it furnishes the solution to so 

many of the problems that vex our people. 

The State has reached forth a Hberal hand and appropri- 
ated one-half its revenue to the common schools. There is 
no question but that in theory the people of any community 
should have the right to supplement what they receive from 
the State by local taxation. This would be democratic; it 
would be local self-government. 

The people can be trusted. That which is correct in the- 
ory cannot fail in practice. Authority makes men conserva- 
tive; and its exercise develops citizenship. 

Every community may not be ready for local taxation 
for school purposes to-day, but each community should have 
the right to decide the question for itself on the merits. 

From Judge W. R. The paper of Dr. J.H.Phillips on ''Lo- 
SSblS'a. ^^'**®''^"^' cal Taxation of Schools," may be ac- 
cepted as proving one proposition, 
and that is, that in Alabama some additional freedom should 
be accorded to localities to tax themselves for the better sup- 
port of their own schools. It may not be accepted as showing 
satisfactorily the extent to which existing restrictions should 
be relaxed. 

Those restrictions are evidence of one of the lessons 
taught by the bitterest experience through which the people 
of Alabama have passed. One of the great objects of the 
Constitutional Convention of 1875, was to provide means 
to protect the property owning classes of the State against 
practical spoliation by burdensome taxation imposed by 
representatives chosen by an electorate composed very 
largely of non-taxpayers. The pledges on this subject which 
the dominant political party in the State felt itself impelled 
to make to the people as conditions on which they were 
asked to intrust to their representatives the task of framing a 
new Constitution in 1901, go to show that up to that time 
those restrictions retained a strong hold on the classes of 
voters who were expected to exert a controlling influence in 
determining the question of calling a Constitutional Convention. 
It is believed that the limitations on State, county and munici- 
pal taxation retained in the present Constitution of the State, 
represent a settled public policy. Enough money for general 
state and county purposes is obtained by taxation within the 
limits imposed. The disposition of municipal authorities to go 
to the limit, whatever it may be, both in taxation and the cre- 

37 



ation of debt, may well suggest tlie -wisdom of retaining the ex- 
isting limitations on municipal taxation. It does not seem 
that it is so much the cities and towns that need larger pow- 
ers of taxation for school purposes. 

But it must be admitted that the existing tax limita- 
tions constitute a serious obstacle to the working out of 
the problem of bettering the conditions of country life in 
Alabama. There is no reason in the nature of things why 
Alabama should not be dotted over with rural communi- 
ties possessing all the social advantages which characterize 
such communities in other sections of our country. Our 
soil and climate possess unsurpassed attractions. But soil 
and climate, without good schools, will not attract to the 
country-districts the intelligent and progressive population 
they so much need. To get and keep in the country the class of 
people who will properly develop our preponderating agricul- 
tural interests, and at the same time furnish a constant stream 
of desirable recruits for the work of the cities and towns, the 
means of securing by community effort the advantages which 
surround country life in other sections must not be withheld. 
To turn the tide towards, instead of from the country, the op- 
portunities of securing good schools in the country districts 
must be improved. 

In some parts of the State, for instance the county in 
w^hich the writer lives, — a good many representatives of 
the best class of the farming population of some of the mid- 
dle and northwestern States have already bought lands and 
made homes in the country districts, and there are evidences 
that many others of the same class are looking in this direc- 
tion with a view to settlement. The inevitable inquiry of 
nearly every prospector of this desirable class is, "what are the 
chances in Alabama for having good schools in the farming 
districts?" The unsatisfactory answ^er w^hich, under existing 
conditions, must be given to this question, deprives the State 
of many a desirable immigrant. These people are accustomed 
to laws under which the residents within a very limited terri- 
tory in a large measure determine for themselves the extent of 
the tax burden which they bear for the support of their own 
schools. The benefits resulting from the operation of that sys- 
tem in the States in which it prevails, may well suggest the 
w^isdom of its adoption in some measure by this State. But in 
devising any scheme looking to this end, provision should be 
made against its possible inequitable operation under the con- 
ditions of land ownership now prevailing in many portions of 
Alabama. The object should be to provide a method of self- 
help by rural communities, composed in large part of resident 
landowners. Many country districts in Alabama are now 
peopled mostly by tenants living on the lands of non-resident 

38 



proprietors. In such districts it would not be fair to put it in 
the power of the majority made up of landless voters to tax 
the property of others for their own special benefit. To avoid 
such consequences, it is suggested that any scheme proposed 
for the taxation of themselves by rural communities, for the 
better support of their own schools, should embody some such 
provision as that such special tax shall not be imposed except 
when authorized by popular vote, and that the vote in its fav- 
or shall include those owning a majority in value of the taxa- 
ble property which will bear the burden of the additional levy. 

From Mr. H. O. Murfee, The able article of Dr. Phillips leaves 
Marion, Alabama. j-^^j^ ^^ ^^ ^^-^ -^^ ^^j^^jf ^f ^^^^1 t^^. 

ation. Local taxation for schools is the doctrine of democracy 
in education. This doctrine teaches that the people who pos- 
sess the most immediate knowledge of public affairs and who 
have the most intimate interest in their well-being, should be 
entrusted with the power of support and the responsibility of 
control. Denied this power and responsibility, the people cease 
to consider public affairs as their affairs, which demand their 
vigilant supervision and loyal support. The new Constitution 
of Alabama recognizes the importance of this principle by 
granting at least some power of local taxation to school dis- 
tricts. The government, by whatever name it is called, which 
prevents a people from improving their condition, savors more 
of despotism than of democracy. 

The chief virtue of local taxation for schools is the virtue of 
democratic government; it develops the people through their 
efforts to govern themselves. Not the greatest happiness of 
the greatest number, but the most complete development of ev- 
ery citizen, is the blessing of self-government. This blessing is 
most beneficent in the conduct of education. The administra- 
tion of their schools, through local support and local control, 
is itself a source of enlightenment to the people. The amount 
of revenue which will accrue from local taxation is a secondary 
consideration ; the increase of interest and the community of 
effort on the part of the people in the elevation of their schools, 
is the vital effect of this mode of raising revenue. The amount 
of revenue raised is a matter of the moment; the active inter- 
est of the people in the education of their own children, is a 
matter of all time. Such interest is a source of life unto life, 
and is itself a mighty means of enduring revenue. Local tax- 
ation for schools yields its richest fruits, not in an increased 
revenue, but in the personal interest each citizen requires for 
the betterment of the schools: In the belief which thus comes 
to prevail that the schools are of the people, for the people, 
and by the people, and that the people are the repositories 
of their children's welfare. The people are the keepers of 
their children. 

39 



^m*^i?'' ■'^^^A** ^^®®^y' I have carefully read your letter and 
Tuskegee, Alabama. the argument made by Dr. Phillips. 
The subject under consideration has, for some time, given me 
grave concern. We cannot, as Alabamians, be indifferent to 
the educational conditions of our State. The fact that we are 
so low in the roll of States in regard to illiteracy and at the 
same time are contributing less per average pupil to public 
education than any other State, should quicken the energies of 
every teacher and awaken a consciousness of dereliction in 
the mind of every thoughtful citizen. These facts appeal to 
our religion, our philanthropy, our patriotism, our State 
pride, our material interests — in fact, to every motive that 
characterizes good citizenship. I fully endorse the plan you 
suggest. 

Without repeating what you have already so well said, I 
would emphasize two thoughts : 

1. — We cannot keep our State abreast with the progress of 
the age without the higher education of our own people. While 
it is true that education works from above downward, it is 
also true that the material must go from below upward. Our 
colleges are suffering more from lack of well prepared students 
than from all other causes. The remedy for this will be found 
in better common schools. 

There is a tendency among us to turn the whole business of 
education over to the State, since it has undertaken to provide 
for this, without thinking how inadequate even more than 
half of the public revenues is to meet the demands of the case, 
and without considering that personal interest in the work is 
an essential condition of success. Formerly every intelligent 
community had a good school which the citizens built by pri- 
vate subscription and maintained by tuition fees. The best 
thing in it was the community interest which it called forth 
and cemented. Its weak point was that it did not reach all 
the people. We must now look to the public schools for 
general preparatory education. We must seek to bring to the 
public school the old-time community interest. Local taxation 
will more effectually do this than reliance upon appropriations 
from the State treasury or any other source remote from the 
communities concerned. 

2. — We cannot have a sound and healthy civilization with- 
out the vitalizing energy of strong moral elements. These 
moral forces cannot have full play while we have so much 
popular ignorance. Intelligence is one essential condition of 
moral growth. If we would build up a safe and permanent 
civilization, we must see to it, that not only the well-to-do 
have good educational facilities, but that evei-y child of the 
State shall have the door of Knowledge opened to him with all 
reasonable encouragement to enter in and become an intelli- 
gent moral citizen. 

Local taxation is the next step in the solution of our edu- 
cational problem. 

40 



Prom tlie Hon. John B. I have read with much interest your 

S.^o ' ^^r%''*'V^^^; article and that of Dr. PhiUips touch- 
bama; President of • ,, . . r j.i i i 

the Recent Constitu- ^^S ^^^ . improvement of the school 
tional Convention. system in this State, and I heartily 

favor local taxation, under reason- 
able safeguards, whereby the people in the several counties 
may raise additional funds with which to enlarge and extend 
their public schools. 

In the course of some remarks delivered in the constitu- 
tional convention of New York, the late George William Curtis 
said : 

" There is one point that we can not properly forget ; it is, 
that all that we have and all that we are in this country de- 
pends upon general education and general intelligence. When 
this country is ignorant, then this country ceases to be — I 
mean in its true and best sense ; and it seems to be the duty of 
every man who thoroughly understands the true principles of 
popular government at least to put himself fairly upon the his- 
torical record as in favor of everything which shall educate the 
people." 

I recall, too, the sentiment of Mr. Canning, the great Eng- 
lish statesman, referring to the public school system of our 
mother-country, he said : 

'•It is in her public schools and universities that the youth 
of England are, by a discipline which shallow judgments have 
sometimes attempted to undervalue, prepared for the duties of 
public life. There are rare and splendid exceptions, to be sure, 
but in my conscience I believe that England would not be 
what she is without her system of public education, and that 
no other country can become what England is without the 
advantage of such a system." 

From the Hon. Alex. T. A sense of pubHc duty makes it a 
AlJbama^"^^**^^^"^' pleasure to reply to your letter con- 
taining a copy of Dr. Phillips's plea 
for Local Taxation for the Support of the Public Schools, for 
I feel that you are entitled to encouragement and aid from all 
upon whom you may call, and, if my aid be small, you can 
rest assured of my hearty good wishes and good will. Such 
service as I can give, I will give gladly. 

You say very truly " The true service of Alabama lies not 
in the constant flattery of our people, but in a sympathetic, 
yet fearless revelation of the conditions which encompass 
them," and you and Dr. Phillips have each done a service to 
the State by your papers. 

If the ends you both seek were now^ accomplished facts, 
existing abuses could not exist. Publicity, for which the 
guarantee of the freedom of the press was devised and so 
rigidly insisted upon in our fundamental law, would be the 
rule and not the exception in Alabama, and the exposure of 
our unhappy condition would not be received, as it may be, 
with heat and unreasoning rancor as a reproach upon the 

41 



State, but an intelligent people would realize that the fact 
not the exposure, was the cause of reproach, if reproach there 
be. 

"Give me liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely 
according to conscience, above all liberties," said John Mil- 
ton, and this has been the corner stone of our liberties. Let 
the light of intelligence be spread among the people and we 
may safely trust them to cure abuses. 

It seems to me the real question presented in Dr. Phillips's 
paper is. Are we willing to trust the people to correct the 
confessed evils which exist? 

You have made it pitifully plain how deplorable our con- 
dition is, and a simple and practical remedy within our reach 
is suggested, which has the great advantage of being tried 
and tested. The natural protest against experimental legis- 
lation finds no basis upon which to rest. 

My confidence and trust in the honesty and capacity of 
the people to administer government steadily increases as the 
years go by, and even the large percentage of illiteracy in 
Alabama, which the census figures disclose, does not weaken 
my confidence. I am convinced that much of the illiteracy 
and ignorance, and their accompaniments of prejudice and 
passion, are directly traceable to the want of confidence in 
the masses we have for years displayed. 

The proposition to have local taxation for local schools 
appeals to my judgment as worthy of the best efforts of our 
people to secure, in whatever aspect it may be viewed. It 
would procure the necessary school funds; it woulci secure 
the much needed school-houses and schools in the rural dis- 
tricts; it would put the burdens and responsibilities of cre- 
ating, maintaining and managing these schools upon the 
people whose children are to receive the direct benefits of 
them, and, while affording the means of education to the 
children, it would of itself be an education in practical citi- 
zenship to the adults. Each school-house would be a center 
from which not only book-learning would come, but from 
which that higher and more exacting intelligence of how gov- 
ernment should be conducted would radiate not only to the 
limits of the particular district, but all over the State. 

I am perfectly willing for the people to tax themselves 
without limit for their own direct benefit, and when they 
once realize that they alone receive the benefits and bear the 
burdens of their own creation, and that the school is their 
own, and its success or failure is dependent solely upon their 
wisdom and judgment, the fear I have is, not that they will 
levy too much taxes, but that over-prudence will restrain 
them from levying enough. And this I think has been the 
result of experience wherever the system prevails. 

Experience has demonstrated that constitutional restraints 
upon representative bodies is essential — the burdens of their 
creation do not fall on the creators. 

42 



The virtues of the proposition seem manifest, but what es- 
pecially appeal to me are (1) the dual education which the 
system affords to both adult and child, (2) the elevation and 
enlightment of our citizenship by the trust we repose in the 
people, (3) the light of hope which it holds out to the most be- 
nighted sections, and (4) the self-contained restraint against 
abuse. 

The discussion of the issue by Dr. Phillips and yourself and 
the agitation of it by you will educate the people in right lines, 
and must in the end arouse a public sentiment which will assert 
itself for the public good. 

God speed you and all the other good men and women who 
are so patiently and zealously laboring at the great task you 
have set before yourselves. 



JOSEPH B, GRAHAM AT RICHMOND. 



AT the Sixth Session of the Conference for Education 
in the South at Richmond, Virginia, April 23, 1903, 
the late Joseph B. Graham of Talladega, Alabama, 
spoke as follows. His words — words of one of 
Alabama's noblest educational leaders — are here reprinted 
because of their incidental reference to the subject of this 
symposium. Said Mr. Graham : 

"For the first time in the history of our commonwealth, 
the principle and privilege of local taxation for public school 
purposes are recognized in the organic law. It is true that 
the unit is the county and one mill the limit, while the ideal 
unit is the district and the will of the people the limit, still 
all must agree that ours is better than no unit and no rate 
at all. (Applause.) If I mistake not the sentiment of the 
people in the counties which I have visited, they will vote 
to levy the one mill tax at the first opportunity. 

" My future work will be largely in assisting the educa- 
tional forces in several counties in campaigns for the levying 
of the one mill tax. 

"The doctrine of local taxation is becoming popu- 
lar and is going to win in Alabama, although our public 
school system has been in existence only about fifty years 
and has had but small financial support until the past fif- 
teen years. Our rural white schools averaged one hundred 
and five days and our rural colored schools averaged nine- 
ty-three days, free terms, during the last scholastic year. 

43 



"Be it said to the credit of Alabama, that, although 
her people are comparatively poor, though she has in com- 
mon with other Southern States suffered the disasters of 
war and borne the burdens and sacrifices of reconstruction, 
and though forty-four per cent of her population belongs to 
a race which pays but little more than five per cent of the 
taxes, still our new organic law^ forbids that discrimination 
inspired by prejudice which would restrict the educational 
privileges and rights of a particular class or race according 
to its contribution in taxes for the support of the Govern- 
ment. This equality of benefits did not arise from any cring- 
ing fear of Federal amendments, but from a spontaneous 
philanthropy too generous to take advantage of the poor, 
and a sense of right and humanity too proud to stoop to 
wrong an inferior race. (Applause.) 

**In my opinion, the highest and sincerest expression of 
the principle of fraternity and the most splendid prophecy 
of the permanence and high standard of our future civilization 
are to be found at one and the same time in the willingness 
of the people, through honest government, to make liberal 
contribution for free public schools for the education of all 
the people. (Applause.) 

"This ideal condition has not alw^ays obtained in Ala- 
bama, but I stand here to pledge the enlightened sentiment 
and property-holding citizenship of my beloved State, as far 
as in their ability lies, to this platform, and only this, for 
our future public education." (Applause.) 



LofC.i 



44 



